JP Saxe says new chart milestone for “If the World Was Ending” is a “validation,” but isn’t what “matters the most”
Nirav PatelAfter becoming a quarantine anthem, “If the World Was Ending” by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels, has finally hit the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. JP says the milestone is a “validation,” but it’s not the most important “metric of success.” “…
By ABC Audio on September 4, 2020
Nirav PatelAfter becoming a quarantine anthem, “If the World Was Ending” by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels, has finally hit the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. JP says the milestone is a “validation,” but it’s not the most important “metric of success.”
“The trajectory of this song has been serendipitous and strange and new for me,” the Canadian artist tells ABC Audio. “I mean, we wrote the song in July of last year. So we had no concept of the eventual relevance that it would have.”
“Does it going top 40 matter to me?” he wonders. “It matters to me because it feels like a validation of what I’ve always believed as a songwriter: If you’ll be honest in music, you can relate to more people than if you try and ‘contrive’ some version of relatability.”
“So that feels like a nice encouragement…to see that metric of success, ” JP notes. “But ultimately, the success that matters the most to me is knowing that it’s a song that’s giving some peace and solace, in a time when putting love before everything else is a message that is needed.”
JP and Julia, who are a couple in real life, gave an emotional performance of the duet on the MTV VMAs last weekend, which was filmed in L.A. in front of a green screen.
“We had to get tested before going on set, so everyone on set was was COVID-free, and still, everyone was wearing the face guards and the masks,” he says.
“It was the first performance we’ve done [since quarantine] that wasn’t in our living room,” he notes. “It was my first awards show, which was incredibly special. But I’ve had so many firsts in the last eight months!”
JP’s new single “A Little Bit Yours” is out now.
By Andrea Dresdale
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